but tonight could be the big exception. gov. mitt romney announced in the polls after his strong performance. vice-president biden will likely try to make some lost ground up. tonight's topic, domestic and foreign possibilitpolicy. tot will be about the economy. an issue that the pundits say will likely decide this election. each campaign offers a vastly different approach to tackling the tough issues including how to lower the nation's 7.8% unemployment rate and how to rein in the national debt that tops $16 trillion. each nominee has 90 minutes to convince the voters that his to get is the best. from abcs moderator is marth news. >> good evening and welcome to the first and only vice- presidential debate of 2012. sponsored by the commission on presidential debates. i am honored to moderate this debate between two men who have dedicated much of their lives to public service. tonight's debate is divided between divided and domestic foreign-policy issues and i will move back and forth between foreign and domestic because that is what a president or vice-president will have to do.

. >> he has to be on message. team romney is on a roll, is on a roll and the last week he's on a roll in the polls. that's why i'm saying ryan, he's got to be polite and respectful but on message and i believe economic growth and jobs, is the message. >> he has to have his youth. needs to let his youth take advantage of the full scope of what that energy can bring to the seat. >> there's youth and there's -- -- >> go to cnbc.com. the vice presidential debate is about to start. here's abc's martha raddatz. >> good evening and welcome to the first and only vice presidential debate of 2012 sponsored by the commission on presidential debates. i'm martha raddatz of abc news and i am honored to moderate this debate between two men who have dedicated much of their lives to public service. tonight's debate is divided between domestic and foreign policy issues and i'm going to move back and forth between foreign and domestic since that is what vice president or president would have to do. at the beginning of each segment i will ask both candidates a question and they will each have two minutes to

got, lost their energy in the race and the polls changed. >> nicolle, one of the things that governor romney had to do is reassure people about who they are. did he get that done? >> i think he did. starting tomorrow morning, going through the weekend into tuesday, and i think what republicans are going to drive is this question that biden opened up about what they knew and when they knew it with the attacks in benghazi. i think there was serious news that was made. rar th martha should clear her schedule. what she was able to do tonight, both men made some news and both of these men are frankly better at this than the men that they work for at the top of their ticket. but by being better, they said more and i feel like republicans feel like they have fresh ammunition on this growing scandal, which is how the right seeps the investigation into the attacks and the tragic death of our ambassador in libya. >> the vice president said, we didn't know about the security concerns in benghazi in particular, clearly state department officials did. >> well, the vice president also made it clear